Activist investor makes Rapid return
ACTIVIST investor Damille Investments has lauded its decision to take a significant stake in the Rapid Realisations Fund and push for a return of shareholders’ cash.
Rapid Realisations Fund is a £60m Guernsey-based fund managed by Haydock-based Cenkos Fund Managers, It was set up in 2007 with the aim of providing short-term, pre-IPO funding to companies looking for a listing on the Alternative Investment Market.
It has taken stakes in a variety of North West businesses including Chorley-based bookmaker Taylor Made and Manchester-based companies iProphets, Barburrito and Enegi Oil.
However, the market for flotations of smaller companies on AIM has been closed for a number of years and following Damille’s investment in May last year it called for a number of changes, including an agreement not to make new investments, a pledge of a return of the uninvested capital to shareholders and a commitment to maximise the return of invested capital by 2013.
It also called for two of its own directors to be appointed to the company’s board.
Since its investment – at 46.02p a share on May 28, 2010, Guernsey-based Damille said that Rapid Realisations has announced several payments returning capital to shareholders totalling 48p per share. Meanwhile, the fund’s share price remained at 30.5p as of May 12.
